


The Pushcart Queen

by donutsweeper



Category: Pushcart War- Jean Merrill
Genre: Children's Literature, Gen, New York City, Nostalgia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-17
Updated: 2012-12-17
Packaged: 2017-11-21 08:02:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/595386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/donutsweeper/pseuds/donutsweeper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Pushcart War lasted only four months, but it changed Alice Myles' life forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Pushcart Queen

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheSecondBatgirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSecondBatgirl/gifts).



> A Yuletide treat for thesecondbatgirl, because who can resist writing about The Pushcart War?

Alice was ten years old the year of the Pushcart War. In fact, it started on her birthday, even though she didn't know it at the time. It just so happened that her mother was lighting the candles (eleven of them, the extra one was 'for luck') at exactly the same time that only nine blocks away Morris the Florist and Albert P. Mack began arguing over a section of curb near the corner of Sixth Avenue and 17th Street. She was enjoying her first piece of cake (devils food with chocolate frosting) at precisely the same time that Morris was knocked head first into a pickle barrel just as Marvin Seeley was taking his picture. 

Being ten was basically the same as being nine, Alice discovered, and the rest of that March and April were pretty boring for her. She went to school during the week and on the weekends she did her chores. Like most children her age, her allowance was 10¢. Every Saturday she and her friends, Sally Kemple and Betty Roseberg, would combine their dimes and go find Papa Peretz's pushcart and get 6 pretzels for 25¢ and then head down to the park to the Italian ices pushcart where Mario would give them a small one to share for the remaining nickel.

Other than the time Alice's parents discovered her brother had joined a Frank-the-Flower Club (her father had said, "How's it going, tiger?" he'd responded "Just fine, lily," and then her father sent her brother to his room) very little about the Pushcart War affected Alice directly until the tacks tax was passed and all the teachers in the city went and picketed and there was no school for an entire week.

It was a very good week. 

Going back to school was not as exciting as being off from school, which was to be expected. However, once school started up again there had been a change. Her teacher, Miss Berger, now spent the first twenty minutes of every day reading to the class from the newspaper about current events. Therefore Alice learned all about Maxie Hammerman, the Pushcart King, and how he was arrested for having all those pea-tacks and pea shooters.

Alice had never thought much about pushcarts before then. Pushcarts were just there, all over the city. But when she heard about Maxie Hammerman, and how he was the Pushcart King? Now that was interesting and suddenly Alice wanted to learn more. She started by asking her father to save the afternoon edition of the newspaper for her. She also started to pay more attention to pushcarts whenever she saw them.

Once she started looking for them, Alice realized there were a lot more pushcarts then she'd thought. One Saturday she counted nine. She spotted Papa Peretz and Mario, just like always, but also saw Victor the vegetable seller who sold her mother cabbages and cucumbers and that sort of thing, and a pushcart advertising junk. There was also a pushcart stacked high with boxes, another selling Polish sausages, one that sharpened knives, and two that sold flowers.

There were a lot of pushcarts. Mister Hammerman must have work very hard to keep all those pushcarts on the streets. There should be someone who helped him with that, shouldn't there? She thought about it and thought about it. Then one day she realized that just because there was currently one Pushcart King, that didn't mean there couldn't be a second one in the future. 

That seemed like a good job to her so when Miss Berger asked them to write about what they wanted to be when they grew up, Alice wrote her essay about becoming a Pushcart King so she could build and fix pushcarts. During sharing time they talked about what careers they chose and Billy Thompson laughed so hard at hers that milk came out his nose and he had to go to the nurse. Miss Berger told Alice not to mind Billy and gave her a gold star, but then said that Alice couldn't become a Pushcart King because only men could become kings. Women became queens.

When she got home from school Alice was practically in tears. When her mother asked why, Alice showed her the essay. "Miss Berger says I can't grow up to be the Pushcart King!" she wailed.

"I see," her mother said, handing her a handkerchief. "Do you want to be a Pushcart King?"

"Yes! Yes, I do, but she said I can't because only men can be kings!"

"If there is a Pushcart King, then maybe there could be a Pushcart Queen too? Did you ever think about that?" Her mother took the essay and put it up on the refrigerator. "Now blow your nose and then wash up. I made cookies for snack."

Alice's mother had a very good point. There were plenty of Queens out there. England had a queen, certainly pushcarts could have one too? Alice couldn't stop thinking about it. A few months later she even wrote to the newspaper about the possibility of becoming the Pushcart Queen after she saw that horrible article about the death of pushcarts. Alice was very excited when the letter was printed. The next day Miss Berger read her letter out loud to the class and gave her extra credit and _two_ gold stars.

That summer the Pushcart War ended, but Alice did not forget about her ambition to become the Pushcart Queen. When the time came to think about her future and she had to choose between high school and vocation school she went to Mister Hammerman's shop to talk to him and ask him about how he became the Pushcart King.

"That is a very good question, Alice," he told her. "My father was the Pushcart King before me and his father before him. As long as there have been pushcarts in New York City there has been someone to build and repair them and there have been pushcarts here for a very long time."

"Who will be the Pushcart King after you?" she asked.

"I do not know. I have no children to take over when I retire and that makes me sad. The peddlers will need someone to build and repair their pushcarts after I am gone. If there is no one to do that eventually there will be no pushcarts for them. This city would not be the same without pushcarts, don't you agree?"

"Oh, yes," she said. "The city needs its pushcarts and the pushcarts need their Pushcart King."

"A Pushcart King, yes," Mister Hammerman agreed. "Or, at least someone to work on the pushcarts. It is not an easy job." He smiled at her. "The city has had a Pushcart King for a long time. Perhaps it is time for it to have a Pushcart Queen?"

"Perhaps it is," she said, returning his smile.

That very day she enrolled in vocational school. Mister Hammerman was right, the city needed pushcarts and the pushcarts needed someone to build them. She was going to make sure her dream came true. She was going to become the Pushcart Queen.


End file.
